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Assessing the LD healing process?

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Posted 1/5/2012 10:03 AM (GMT -5)
Fairly new into my chronic LD treatment (2months), I am interested in how other lymies gauge their healing process? I realize it is different with each person.  My LDMD uses several forms of evaluation such as clinical evaluation rating of symptoms, degree of ability/disability and a couple other assessments.

So I am just interested in how other folks gauge their healing process ? by less frquent, less intensity herxing?, symptoms waning?.

 let me know. thanks

ecotick

Posted 1/5/2012 8:28 PM (GMT -5)
Symptoms disappearing and whether I'm starting to "feel well" is how I judge my healing.
Posted 1/5/2012 10:35 PM (GMT -5)
I have been on abx for about 2 months and never had a herx. The only symptom I've noticed a decrease in is lack of pain in my knees, but the stiffness is still there and I have pain in my other joints. Other than that, I've maybe had a little increase in energy. I've been able to work full-time since I got sick, so there isn't any severe disability. I'd say your doc has a good variety of measurements for tracking your progress. You might find it beneficial to keep a journal of your symptoms as well and review them from week to week to see if any are improving.
Posted 1/6/2012 5:13 AM (GMT -5)
Hi, ecotick - welcome! I'm sorry to hear you're suffering with Lyme, but glad to hear you're getting the treatment you need!

Usually the duration of the infection plays a role in how long it takes to get better, so having a rough estimate of how long you've been sick can kind of be a useful guage to follow. Some doctors monitor the CD57 count - these are Lyme specific cells - do you know if yours has been tested? Many of us chronic Lyme patients start out pretty low (mine was 11 when I was diagnosed) and I'm pretty sure a "good" number is somewhere around 200. This can be a little finicky though - it's not an exact mirror into your progress but it can be helpful combined with other things.

Keeping a symptom journal has been the best way for me to track my progress. Usually when one bad day hits I tend to forget about all the progress I've made. It really helps to see it all written down. Feeling so crummy all the time it can be tough to notice, "Hey - my left knee doesn't hurt anymore!" when you're so distracted by all the other symptoms.

It sounds a little too obvious, but I think the best indication is how you're feeling, overall. Some people also believe that symptoms disappear in the order that they appeared, so this might be a helpful guide in tracking your progress. For instance panic attacks were my very last symptom to appear, and the first to go away.

In my own case I did notice that herxing has lessened since the beginning of treatment - although that may be partially due to the fact that I've been doing more and more detoxing as time goes on.

Hope this helps!
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